When was kansas underwater

The State Capitol in Topeka and the Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria were each made of several million pounds of limestone quarried in Kansas. At the end of the Paleozoic Era more than million years ago , oceans covering western and central Kansas left behind thick layers of salt.

This large bed of salt was buried deep underground, and nobody knew that it was there. By accident, some oil drillers searching for gas and oil near Hutchinson in discovered the salt. Petroleum products, such as oil and natural gas, were a major source of wealth for Kansas in the 20th century. More than 80 of the state's counties had petroleum wells. The first oil well in Kansas was near Paola in the s.

In the last issue of Kansas Kaleidoscope volume 5, no. Our series began when Gina and her cousin Max, his little sister Opal, and Opal's dog Marshmallow took shelter from a storm in their grandparents' barn. Lightning struck, and the kids were forced to escape through a hole in the barn wall. Once outside, they were shocked to find themselves face to face with Lewis and Clark! In Part 2, they traveled again through time and were befriended by a Kansas family in Part 3 ended as the children plunged into a river to try to rescue a run-away Marshmallow.

Struggling in the swift current, all four sank underwater. Write the next part of the adventure under words and send it to Kansas Kaleidoscope with your name, age, address and phone number. We'll publish one student's writing in the next issue! Help us create new adventures--and follow these young explorers as they travel through Kansas history trying to get back home.

Our member, retail, and fundraising organization supports and promotes Kansas history through the Kansas Historical Society, a state agency. Real Stories. Volume 5, Number 4 A fun magazine for kids! For Parents and Teachers: Kansas' geologic past -- as part of an inland sea--may seem prehistoric, but it still affects us today. How to say Cretaceous Creatures of Kansas It's probably a good thing that humans weren't around during the period when Kansas was covered by an ocean.

Want to "Sea" More? Kansas is no longer an ocean state full of huge, hungry sea creatures. What happened? Time Traveling Mike Everhart is a marine biologist and paleontologist in Kansas.

Monument Rocks, Kansas Monument Rocks is a relatively large, isolated, and weathered outcrop of chalk that preserves rock layers deposited million years ago.

Example of a coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi , imaged using a scanning electron microscope. Image by Alison R. Taylor Creative Commons Attribution 2. Monument Rocks, Kansas. Click on the image to access a GigaPan image created by Richard T. Bryant of this locality. Paleontologists explore the Kansas chalk for fossils. A fossil collector excavates the remains of a pterosaur from the Kansas chalk.

Partially exposed remains of a fossil fish in the Kansas chalk. Castle Rock, Kansas. States with Cretaceous rock deposits associated with the Western Interior Seaway. The ages of these stages are: Late Cretaceous: Maastrichtian: Campanian: Santonian: Coniacian: Turonian: Clams and oysters, fish and sharks, and even reptiles have been found in fossilized form. On April 4, , the Tylosaurus became the official state marine fossil and the Pteranodon the official state flying fossil. The Tylosaurus is a giant mosasaur, which inhabited the sea that covered portions of Kansas during the Late Crestaceous period and grew to lengths of more than 40 feet.

The Tylosaurus dominated most other sea creatures. With its narrow and water dynamic body, the creature had a blunt and powerful head it used to ram into prey. The Tylosaurus was fitted with agile flippers, fins, and a long tail. In Charles H. Sternberg discovered a specimen in Logan County with the fossilized remains of an unidentified plesiosaur in its stomach. This large, predatory marine lizard is closely related to modern monitor lizards and to snakes. The Pteranodon is a great, winged pterosaur with a wingspread of more than 24 feet.

These reptiles hadlarge heads and wingspans, but small bodies and tails.